Paul Kakoliris, DeKalb move to 9-0 with win over Harlem

DeKALB – The top of the fifth inning didn’t go well for the DeKalb baseball team Tuesday against Harlem.

The Barbs committed three errors in the frame as the Huskies not only erased a three-run deficit but chased DeKalb starter Aidan Lange from the game.

But the Barbs responded with five runs over the next two innings sandwiched around a 1-2-3 inning from Lukas Stubblefield in an 8-3 win over the Huskies to improve to 9-0 on the season.

“We know we can hit one through nine down the lineup,” said Paul Kakoliris, who was 3 for 4 in the win. “We have no business being scared about not hitting or taking back leads. The kid was kind of struggling out there throwing strikes so we just took our at-bats and took walks so we did alright.”

Lange retired the first eight Huskies (4-5) he faced and took a no-hitter into the fourth. The Barbs led 3-0 into the fifth but the Huskies put up three unearned runs off Lange before chasing him with two outs.

Isaac Black and Kakoliris started the bottom of the fifth off with singles. Hunter Kriese drove home Black with one out and Kakoliris scored on a wild pitch for a 5-3 DeKalb lead. The Barbs never trailed again.

DeKalb coach Josh Latimer said Kakoliris has figured out his zone and is doing a good job of waiting for his pitch. Which on Tuesday meant looking for something to keep low.

“I saw the wind and knew I had to keep the ball down today and try not to lift,” said Kakoliris, who scored twice and drove in a run. “Just keep the ball down, hit line drives and it worked out today.”

Stubblefield struck out two of the three batters he faced in the sixth. After walking the bottom two hitters in the lineup to start the seventh, he got the top three in order to come away with the win.

The Barbs gave him three more runs to work with in the bottom of the sixth. Brodie Farrell launched a double to start the sixth and scored on a walk by Kriese.

“The boys feel very confident if they do make a mistake or somebody has an error, they can go out and they can get it right plus some,” Latimer said. “There’s really no end in sight. It’s really just they’re looking at the big picture. They love what they’re doing and they’re very confident with what they’re doing right now.”

Nik Nelson had a pair of hits and a run, Black had two hits and two runs and Kriese drove in three runs despite not getting a hit.

Lange allowed three runs, none earned, on three hits with six strikeouts in 4⅔ innings. Stubblefield pitched 2⅓ innings of scoreless, hitless baseball with two walks and three strikeouts.

“Games like this, for how much they kill my heart and make my heart race they’re good for the boys cause they know that we can win this,” Latimer said. “This is what we’ve been preaching, we need to learn how to win, for the last three years. And we’re starting to do that a little bit.”

Four years ago, the Barbs went 4-22 in Latimer’s first year. Many of the seniors on the team now, including Kakoliris, were freshmen on that team that took its lumps.

Latimer said he’s proud of the progress the team has made since 2022, showing the trust he has in his players and the players have in him.

“We definitely knew we had something special back then,” Kakoliris said. “We knew it was going to take some time and our coach always says trust the process and we listen to that every day.”